Is There a Flashlight Heaven and Hell? Where Do Obsolete Flashlights Go?

Okay, assuming flashlights have souls, there's gotta be a Heaven and Hell, and there's going to be a lot of room in both!

I'm happy to see that many of the new flashlights are coming with USB ports and quality batteries. That would make them mighty handy in a bugout bag with a solar charger. The problem is that these lights go obsolete so quickly. I have a beautiful Klarus XT30 that takes two 18650 batteries, but it's output is only 820 lumens! My Klarus RS20 takes one 18650 and shoots out even further. The former is still a great usable light, but a year from now it'll be just another Mag-Lite kicking around in a drawer.

So it'll probably go to Flashlight Heaven. As for all my Surefires and Mag-Lites, they've been consigned to the fire and brimstone, condemned for their ruthless determination to cling to old technology while brandishing their cherished names. (In fact, if someone gave me a <$165 Surefire that I couldn't sell, it would immediately be consigned to my drawer of obsolete flashlights.) Only now I don't know what to do with all these flashlights, so I just save them. Collect them.

How about you? Do you stay current or are you still using your EDCing 320-lumen Olight M20? Do you have a drawer of your obsolete flashlights and do you keep the boxes they came in?

One more thing: would an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event knock out a modern flashlight or protected batteries? I don't know much about EMPs, but I do know the Navy's been hardening it's systems against them. I've never heard of the Navy working on hardening flashlights.

Please send me your old obsolete useless Surefires for disposal.

How does a flashlight become obsolete? Seriously...

New flashlights with greater lumens and more modes are always being hyped in our consumer crazy world, but even ridiculously old flashlights continue to do exactly what they were designed to do.

Ya might not say "obsolete" too loudly...

The dim reaper may not take it so well.

bykfixer said:

Ya might not say "obsolete" too loudly...

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Lol, gonna fire this Rock n' Roll Option Glock behind this toilet plunger-sized flashlight, what could go wrong..

Confederate said:

Do you have a drawer of your obsolete flashlights and do you keep the boxes they came in?

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Box on a shelf..

nbp said:

Please send me your old obsolete useless Surefires for disposal.

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Long gone.

My first Surefire was 65 lumens single mode. I upgraded them to 100 lumens, but using the CR123 batteries were killing me. I switched to Inova lights, which were great quality, okay for household use, but I burned one out with rechagable batteries that weren't exactly 3.0v. I thought the LEDs should have been able to handle the extra voltage, but I got some 3.0v rechargeables and I'm still using them.

Outdoor use still required the Surefire lights and, frankly, 100 lumens does pretty well outdoors. My standard EDC now is a Nitecore SR7, which I love. I have the new Klarus XT12GT 1600 and RS20, both of which I like. Both of these are incredible outdoor lights. At some point you reach a point of diminishing marginal return. Now I'm paying more attention to runtimes than lumen count.

My main gripe with Surefire and other "premium" lights is that they offer less for more and not the other way around. What does Surefire offer for the premium prices they ask? Greater quality? No. Better reliability? I don't think so. Are they more rugged? Well, they've dropped Nitecore, Olight and Klarus off 3-story buildings onto cement, threw them into the ocean in more than 50 feet of water and dragged them behind vehicles on hot asphalt. So again, no. These cheaper flashlights also are made of the finest HA-III aluminum.

If Surefire offered it's cheapest model for $29, I might get one in each color.

Of course no flashlight can become useless, but they can become obsolete as greater runtimes and features become better.

I've got a old magcharger collecting dust cheaper to buy a new light than a led conversion

I mod them with the latest and greatest stuff. But i dont think the few old unmodded ones i got is obsolete. 200 lumen will always be 200 lumen. And most of the time i use less than 200 lumen. I like lights that CAN pump out more, but i dont really NEED it. Its not like computers where you need new stuff all the time just because the programs gets bigger and demands more processing power. But yeah, i got a drawer, but only because i got way more lights than i can use.

I sell or gift to people at work. Obsolete for me is WOW for them.

nfetterly said:

I sell or gift to people at work. Obsolete for me is WOW for them.

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+1

Lights that don't get used regularly get given away or sold. I don't believe in collecting tools and try to be eco-friendly. I would rather them go to someone who will use them then have them sit in a box, drawer, or on a shelf.

4Seven & FourSeven Heaven





For some people having their flashs-ees sitting on a shelf being gazed upon is using them. Just sayin.

This one's been waiting in purgatory for years. Sitting on a shelf, long forgotten. But now it's received its wings and a new place where it'll be among family.



~ Chance

I have a habit of growing too attached to some old lights to sell or give away so they end up on the display shelf with some of them cycling off the shelf to be left in random places around the house so every once in awhile they get used. Some get upgraded but light hell for me is a box of lights in parts because I take them apart and decide the internals aren't worth upgrading so it goes into the parts bin.

These "obsolete" are just as good as when they were new. Nothing has changed but your perception. Also lights aren't really getting better. Sure they're getting brighter but they get less runtime. That could've been done before too. And only 870 lumens? I don't consider a car headlight in the palm of your hand at ~4" long to be "only" 870 lumens. Sure you can have more. With drastically less runtime. I don't consider that progress just a paper war like horsepower rating on diesel pickups or FPS on the newest rounds

Obsolete Heaven

Fixer what the three lights directly to the right of the light in the middle???

bykfixer said:

Obsolete Heaven

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STO said:

I have a habit of growing too attached to some old lights to sell or give away so they end up on the display shelf with some of them cycling off the shelf to be left in random places around the house so every once in awhile they get used. Some get upgraded but light hell for me is a box of lights in parts because I take them apart and decide the internals aren't worth upgrading so it goes into the parts bin.

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Didn't they make a movie about such a Toy Story? Welcome to CPF, partner!

~ Chance

gurdygurds said:

Fixer what the three lights directly to the right of the light in the middle???

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The 3 to the right I presume you speak of...

Left is an early Franco circa 1910-12.

It was one that actually had this new invention...
The on/off sliding switch. These 2C sized were called baby lights because they were the ultimate in modern miniaturized flashlights. Very bright for their size with about 6 or 7 lumens cast over a wide area via the convex lens.
Rubber bodies held up better to those extremely leaky batteries of the day. It was a more durable light versus those "paper" bodied numbers of the day.
Soon that switch became obsolete.


Awe yeah! Technology.
By 1915 the internal slider was the norm for Franco. Also by 1915 police had begun to carry flashlights and metal bodies were becoming standard, although rubber bodies were still popular.

Right of the Franco are Eveready/Daylo lights called "Soldier Boys" circa 1917 to 1920-ish. Dark one is an enlisted mans light and the silver was an officer version. Eveready encouraged folks at home to buy them to donate to soldiers.


Again very bright and very portable for the period. A novel white reflector cast light much more consistant through the convex lens.
They were military issues to the lucky during the big 1. The switch combined a very effective belt clip that when not slid over the little 'ball' allowed signaling via that little 'ball'.
Ah, but soon after that became obsolete when the TL122A was released in about 1918 or so.

This one changed it all.
This one is a replica of a Bright Star.
A much more durable assemblage of parts n pieces, yet still pretty light and packable the much larger diameter right angle head cast a lot more light out front. The D cells allowed vastly improved runtimes and the switch system is still in use to this day.


Bright Star is given credit in 1925 but some old military re-actment supply sites swear they have photos of US soldiers carrying them in WW1.
The US Army and Marines still issue lights like these according to Fulton Manufacturing who supply them. It is reported that the Marines use their upgrade to LED kits that replace D cells with adapters and double A batteries.

vicv said:

These "obsolete" are just as good as when they were new. Nothing has changed but your perception. Also lights aren't really getting better. Sure they're getting brighter but they get less runtime. That could've been done before too. And only 870 lumens? I don't consider a car headlight in the palm of your hand at ~4" long to be "only" 870 lumens. Sure you can have more. With drastically less runtime. I don't consider that progress just a paper war like horsepower rating on diesel pickups or FPS on the newest rounds

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Lots has changed man, not just are perceptions. The efficiency of LED's has came a LONG way since they first started being used in flashlights as has their output. This could not have been done before. It is technological advancements in emitter and battery technology that have allowed this progression. I took about an 8 or 9 year break from researching and buying flashlights, for instance, and went from single mode Luxeon 3 lights with 60 lumen output, minuscule runtimes, and large bodies to 1200+ max lumen lights that can hold 500+ lumens for hours and are less then 4 inches long. That is progress. And, keep in mind that you don't have to use the higher outputs. You can still use the lower output modes for extended runtimes(that are now much longer then older models) but, it sure is nice to have the option of high output modes or modes at all(they never existed not that long ago).

500+ lumens is going to need to be longer than 4" or much fatter than 1" to last hours. A single 18650 ain't gonna do it. I do agree we've come a long way from the luxeon day. I meant in the last 5 years. 5 years ago we had the XML. It's still THE 3V led to have. Xpl is identical in use as it's the same die. So in 5 years we've gotten cells with 200 more mah in capacity. Not exactly earth shattering. Drivers are still the same. We get more modes or groups now but that doesn't interest me anyway. Nichias do not focus in available optics or reflectors so have no throw. Output barely better than quality incandescents due to high vf. Hi cri but you get a pink tint which I find very unflattering. The new 219c has better output and lower vf but you lose the cri so it's just another XML but less efficient. Not trying to be confrontational but I'm not seeing how a new single 18650 light is better than one from 2012 to make it obsolete. Not to mention all led lights are obsolete compared to the superior Incan

Edited to add
My 2d mag led is a luxeon. Guess it could be considered obsolete compared to newer offerings even though they're still available. It's big, heavy, not particularly bright in comparison, not very impressive runtime on 4xAA, and has a horrible blue tint. But it's plenty bright for my needs and throws to the moon. Can easily see the other side of my 3 acre property and lasts a couple hours which is all I'll ever need.
All that said my favourite light is my poor man's m3. Seraph sp9 with 2x18500, sr9l, and mini turbo head. 1.5h at 320 searing lumens! All I need. I don't really need 1000 lumens. I've got that with a p60 drop in. I rarely even use the medium mode and usually use low. Medium might be 200 lumen or so

vicv said:

500+ lumens is going to need to be longer than 4" or much fatter than 1" to last hours. A single 18650 ain't gonna do it. I do agree we've come a long way from the luxeon day. I meant in the last 5 years. 5 years ago we had the XML. It's still THE 3V led to have. Xpl is identical in use as it's the same die. So in 5 years we've gotten cells with 200 more mah in capacity. Not exactly earth shattering. Drivers are still the same. We get more modes or groups now but that doesn't interest me anyway. Nichias do not focus in available optics or reflectors so have no throw. Output barely better than quality incandescents due to high vf. Hi cri but you get a pink tint which I find very unflattering. The new 219c has better output and lower vf but you lose the cri so it's just another XML but less efficient. Not trying to be confrontational but I'm not seeing how a new single 18650 light is better than one from 2012 to make it obsolete. Not to mention all led lights are obsolete compared to the superior Incan

Edited to add
My 2d mag led is a luxeon. Guess it could be considered obsolete compared to newer offerings even though they're still available. It's big, heavy, not particularly bright in comparison, not very impressive runtime on 4xAA, and has a horrible blue tint. But it's plenty bright for my needs and throws to the moon. Can easily see the other side of my 3 acre property and lasts a couple hours which is all I'll ever need.
All that said my favourite light is my poor man's m3. Seraph sp9 with 2x18500, sr9l, and mini turbo head. 1.5h at 320 searing lumens! All I need. I don't really need 1000 lumens. I've got that with a p60 drop in. I rarely even use the medium mode and usually use low. Medium might be 200 lumen or so

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Not really. There are a few lights that can hold around 500 lumens for a couple of hours and are around 4 inches long. Just off the top of my head the Nitecore MH20 and Zebralight SC600 MKIII come to mind.

Even in the last 5 years there has been quite a bit of progress. Maybe no monumental but, still a fair step forward. Drivers have came a long way too. Look at the new boost drivers in lights like the SC600 MKIII I mentioned above. It is not only tiny but, boosts voltage of a single 18650 up to 12V for the new XHP emitters and can hold max regulated output(temperature permitting) right down to 3.0V or so.

The Nichia 219C is now readily available in 90+ CRI bins(R9050) that average about 93CRI. And, not all Nichia's are magenta/pinkish. They are binned just like Cree's and you can get ones very close or on the black body radiation line. You just have to order ones with a low MacAdam Ellipse number. Eagletac just came out with a light using the 219C high CRI that puts out 740 ANSI lumen's off of a single 18650 for 1.5+ hours.

The new lights don't necessarily make the old lights obsolete but, they are a clear step forward in many ways and for a lot of people, myself included, they have made the old lights not worth using. I personally buy a new set of lights every bunch of years and sell off or give away the old ones. I like to stay current and enjoy the latest features, efficiency/runtimes, and output. YMMV of course.